Monday, May 25, 2009

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Dogs Take Bite Out of Rebs

Report from the Atlanta airport-

Mississippi State showed up to play this weekend and obviously cared more than the Rebels. The Dogs won the series, knocking the Rebels out of contention for the SEC Championship and possibly killing their oppostunities to host a regional.

Terrible running mistakes, poor pitching, and non clutch hitting led to the Rebels defeat. You got to give it to the Bulldogs for showing up to play when they had nothing but pride to play for.

I'm leaving for a week and expect the Rebels to be a 5 seed in the SEC tourney when I return. A long way from my thoughts just last week.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

NCAA Strikes Again

How the Number 2 team in America is declined to host an NCAA Regional is beyond me. Not only is the Ole Miss men's tennis team Number 2 in America, they have been leading the nation in attendance. What these boneheads in Indianapolis do not realize is that is potentially lost revenue for them. Multiple SEC teams were allowed to host. Yet the NCAA regular season and tournament champions were denied. I don't buy be the talk about travel, because they can not back that claim up with where they sent schools like Boise State and Binghamton.

UMAA officials have hosted a regional for the past 8 years, luckily I have been able to attend quite a few of them and they are very well run. Arguably the best team we have had in those eight years is our current team. This is unreal and officials in Oxford are outraged. Notice the quote from Pete Boone below.

I can't wait to hear the total BS the NCAA puts out. I can imagine they will be receiving multiple phone calls and emails tomorrow.

(Clarion Ledger)OXFORD — In a turn of events that left coach Billy Chadwick fuming, fans frustrated and players shellshocked, the Ole Miss men’s tennis team will not be one of the 16 host teams for the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament despite being the No. 2 overall seed in the country.“It’s a very hard pill to swallow,” said Chadwick, whose Rebel team recently completed an undefeated regular season in the Southeastern Conference and has won its past 17 matches.“There’s no words that can express the boneheadedness of this decision,” said Ole Miss athletic director Pete Boone. “It’s truly beyond comprehension. ... We’re certainly going to be on the phone in the morning with the NCAA trying to find ou what the hell happened.”As expected, the Rebels treceived the No. 2 overall seed in the nation when the NCAA Tournament announced its 64-team bracket. But because of a new NCAA travel rule, the Rebels will travel to Baton Rouge for the four-team regional, which includes Ole Miss, LSU, Rice and Alcorn State.The announcement breaks the Rebels’ eight-year streak of hosting a regional.Chadwick said NCAA officials called about 20 minutes before the selection show to inform associate athletic director Lynnette Johnson that the Rebels would not host based on a rule that was put in place to help cut down on travel expenses.The explanation given was that since the regional will be held at LSU, all three other teams could presumably drive. If it were at Oxford, the Rice players would likely have to fly.But Chadwick said the small difference in travel shouldn’t negate what the Rebels have worked for all season — having home court advantage through the NCAA Tournament’s first two rounds. Ole Miss leads the nation in average announced attendance with 582 per match.“If you’re trying to grow the sport, it seems very odd that the place leading the nation in attendance that’s also the second best team in the nation doesn’t host,” Chadwick said.Ole Miss (27-2) will face Alcorn State (5-10) in the first round on May 9, with LSU playing Rice. The winners will meet on May 10, with a spot in the Sweet 16 on the line.“I don’t have any idea (how this happened),” Chadwick said. “But the only thing we can do is swallow our medicine, get tough and go down to Baton Rouge.”

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Rebs Dominate Dog$

PEARL, Miss. -- Senior left-hander Brett Bukvich struck out a career-high 11 batters and did not walk one on the way to Most Valuable Player honors has he helped lead No. 16 Ole Miss (26-10) to an 8-1 win over Mississippi State (19-18) and helped the Rebels claim the Governor’s Cup.A crowd of 7,458 - the fifth largest in Trustmark Park history - watched Bukvich (5-1) work 6.0 innings and allow only one run on five hits with no walks and 11 strikeouts as the Rebels claimed the annual non-conference contest between Southeastern Conference foes.Ricky Bowen (2-2) suffered the loss for the Bulldogs as he allowed two runs on two hits with two walks and no strikeouts in 1.0 inning of work. Mississippi State would use five pitchers on the night.“I thought Bukvich did a terrific job tonight,” said Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco. “He really only got into trouble one or two times and did a tremendous job. He is a senior from this area who can understand and appreciate this game. It was nice to see him perform so well in a last hurrah so to speak.”Ole Miss got on the board first when Jordan Henry scored in the first on a single up the middle from Matt Smith. Henry walked to open the game and moved to second on a walk of Logan Power before scoring on the Smith hit two batters later.Mississippi State tied things in the top of the second as Scott DeLoach scored on a groundout to short from Jet Butler. DeLoach tripled off the wall to open the inning and scored on the Butler groundout in the next at bat.The Bulldogs would get no closer as Ole Miss would hold Mississippi State off the board the rest of the way.Zach Miller broke he 1-1 tie in the second when he scored from first on a double down the left field line from Michael Hubbard. Miller was hit by a pitch to reach base to open the inning.Ole Miss would add two runs in the fourth inning on a two-RBI double from Kevin Mort that scored both Miller and Hubbard who had reached on singles prior to the Mort hit. The runs pushed the Rebels out to a 4-1 lead.Three more runs crossed the plate for the Rebels in the fifth. Logan Power opened things with a double and scored on a single from Matt Snyder. Two outs later, Miller was again hit by a pitch to reach safely and back-to-back singles from Hubbard and Mort scored Snyder and Miller to give the Rebels a 7-1 lead.Ole Miss added its final run of the game in the sixth when Henry scored on a bases loaded single from pinch-hitter David Phillips to give the Rebels the final margin of 8-1.Ole Miss will return to action this weekend with a three-game series at No. 20 Florida this weekend. First pitch of Friday’s contest is set for 5:30 p.m. CDT.

AK to Settle

From Parish Alford of the Daily Journal:

Breaking news here from a source with knowledge. Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy will plea to a disorderly conduct — a fourth-degree misdemeanor in the state of Ohio — and not the simple assault with which he was charged after an altercation with a cab driver on Dec. 18 in Cincinnati.Kennedy will appear in court in Cincinnati to make the plea on Monday, which is his scheduled trial date. There will be no trial.The plea does not immediately affect the civil suits filed by cab driver Mohamed Jiddou and Kennedy against one another. However, Jiddou’s suit charges Kennedy with assault. After the plea on Monday the state of Ohio will not recognize assault, which could impact Jiddou’s case.

Been Away

I've been away for a while as my computer does not like Blogger right now. Alot of stuff has happened in the past few weeks. Including two basketball players leaving the team. David Huertas and Malcolm White, both starters, have left Ole Miss. White, who has about as much cordination with has hands as Sterling has left the team. Not a big loss in my opinion. White seemed to always be visably upset with the coaches and always seemed to be arguing with several of the assistants.

David was not that different. On several occasions David and AK were seen yelling at each other in the huddle. While I was at first happy to see David lead, because I hate ball hogs and selfish players, but the more I think about it, it is going to be a big loss for the Rebels. Huertas scored alot of points while playing for the Rebels, and even though several key players are returning from injuries, Huertas would have contributed valuable minutes and points. Why David is going to take a raft back to his native country to play pro basketball over there is beyond me.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

What a Joke...

I hope the media has a field day with this as the Rebels have scheduled two FCS schools for next years football season. There is no reason a school in the best football conference in America should be scheduling schools like Northern Arizona. Why not go ahead and play the Valley, it's the same thing.

I love these excuses that Pete Boone tries to point out in the press release. I don't give a damn who Duke and North Carolina are playing, nor do I care what teams have played the Lumberjacks in recent years. Who cares? Bottom line is there is no reason for Ole Miss to schedule them. This press release does nothing but show how weak the administration is with its excuse making.

We are.......Ole Miss

(UMAA), Miss. – Following a lengthy process to accommodate ESPN’s request to add this year’s Ole Miss game at South Carolina to its Thursday Night national television package, Athletics Director Pete Boone announced Tuesday the Rebels’ complete football schedules for the 2009 and 2010 seasons.Highlighting the 2009 schedule will be home Southeastern Conference dates with Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee and LSU, while SEC road trips will be to South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Auburn and Mississippi State. The non-conference schedule has Coach Houston Nutt’s Rebels visiting Memphis to open the season on Sept. 5, while home games with Southeastern Louisiana, UAB and Northern Arizona will provide non-conference opposition in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Ole Miss will be facing the Lions, Blazers and Lumberjacks in football for the first time in school history, with the Oct. 17 UAB game designated as Homecoming on the Oxford campus.Moving the South Carolina date from a Saturday to Thursday night resulted in two additional schedule adjustments for Ole Miss in 2009. Ole Miss was to have played Vanderbilt on Sept. 19, but that game is now scheduled for Oct. 3. Another change that became necessary was to move a scheduled home game with Southeastern Louisiana from Sept. 12 to Sept. 19.“Over the past several months, due to the ESPN request, we have been in and out of discussions with literally 15 to 20 schools in order to complete our 2009 schedule,” Boone said. “When you have to consider things like available dates and each team’s needs for home and away games, it does complicate the decision-making process.”The final piece of the puzzle fell into place this week when Ole Miss added Northern Arizona for a game on Nov. 7. The Rebels will have an open date on Sept. 12.While the 2009 schedule includes two Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) teams in Northern Arizona and Southeastern Louisiana, Boone noted that this year’s schedule was an anomaly. “We didn’t intend to schedule two I-AA teams nor do we anticipate scheduling two I-AA teams in the same year again,” he said.In the past six seasons, Northern Arizona has played Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) teams Arizona (2004, 2005, 2007), Arizona State (2006, 2008) and Utah (2006). In addition to playing Ole Miss this season, the Lumberjacks will also face Arizona. The Rebels are among a number of BCS schools playing two FCS opponents this season. They include Atlantic Coast Conference members Duke, North Carolina and North Carolina State; Big 12 Conference member Kansas State; and Big East member South Florida. The 2010 schedule will have Kentucky replacing South Carolina inside the SEC for a game to be played in Oxford. Other home dates with SEC teams include Vanderbilt, Auburn and Mississippi State, with SEC road games set at Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee and LSU. Non-conference opponents at home in 2010 will be Fresno State, Jacksonville State and Louisiana-Lafayette, with Tulane on the road.Boone also announced additional non-conference opponents for the future, which will include home-and-home dates with Texas, Tulane, Clemson and Georgia Tech as well as return dates with UAB and Fresno State, plus home games with Southern Illinois and Central Arkansas.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Rebs Take 2 of 3 on the Road

Bianco's boys had a good weekend for the most part. Pitching is still a little shaky. Bottom line is Barrett has got to go as a weekend starter. As of now, he is just not going to cut it in SEC ball. Most people are saying that Buckvich or Baker should be given a chance to start against Bama in the upcoming series and I tend to agree.

Miller also was injured today, so it should be interesting to see how Bianco will play the infield, but with Evan Button back it should not be too hard to figure it out.

The Rebels take on Arkansas State and Memphis mid week and need to win them both.

(UMAA)NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Jordan Henry went 2-for-3 with two runs scored and an RBI while Logan Power went 2-for-4 with two RBI, but it wasn’t enough as No. 14 Ole Miss (11-4, 2-1 SEC) dropped the second game of a doubleheader against Vanderbilt (11-6, 1-2 SEC) by a score of 7-6.The Rebels claimed the weekend series 2-1, but missed out on the sweep as the Commodores picked up the 7-6 win in the series finale. It was the second game of a doubleheader. Both games were seven inning contests and the Rebels picked up the first game of the twin bill 6-1 earlier in the afternoon.Scott Bittle (1-2) suffered the loss in the second game as he allowed one unearned run on no hits with two walks and three strikeouts in 2.1 innings of relief work.Reliever Sonny Gray (1-0) picked up the win for the Commodores as he worked 3.2 innings and allowed one run on two hits with two walks and three strikeouts.“Any time you win the first two games, it’s not a good feeling when you lose the final game of the series,” said Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco. “Anytime you don’t play well in this league, you’re going to get beat, but you have to credit Vanderbilt for hanging in there and continuing to battle the whole weekend.”Ole Miss got on the board in the first when Jordan Henry scored on a single through the right side from Logan Power. Henry doubled down the left field line to open the game and moved to third on a passed ball to get into position to score on the Power hit.The Commodores opened the second inning with four straight hits, including back-to-back doubles to push two runs across and take the lead. With runners at first and second, Aaron Barrett got Aaron Westlake to ground into a double play before a fly out from Richie Goodenow got the Rebels out of the inning trailing by one.Ole Miss moved back into the lead in the second with a wild inning that saw Michael Hubbard lead off with a single and then score two batters later on a double from Zach Miller. Miller then scored on a single to left field from Henry. The Rebels held the 3-2 lead after one and a half innings played.Vanderbilt reclaimed the lead in the bottom half of the inning, pushing three runs across with a bases loaded single and then walking in a run as the Commodores put together a big inning with four hits and a pair of walks to take the 5-3 advantage.Another run in the third extended the lead to 6-3 in favor of the Commodores.The Rebels answered in the fourth, using three hits and a pair of walks to push three runs across the plate and tie things at six. Matt Snyder opened the inning with a double, pinch hitting for Brett Basham to lead off the inning and start the Rebel rally. The rally was capped by a chop groundout down the first base line from David Phillips with the bases loaded that scored Tim Ferguson from third and knotted the score before a groundout from Michael Hubbard ended the inning.Vanderbilt moved back into the lead with a single run in the fifth as Harris came up with a sacrifice fly to right field that scored Loftus from third. Loftus walked to open the frame and then stole second before moving to third on a throwing error off a grounder to short from Esposito.Ole Miss would not score again as Vanderbilt picked up the 7-6 win and avoided the sweep.Ole Miss will return to action on Tuesday when the Rebels travel to face Arkansas State in Jonesboro, Ark. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m.

Monday, March 09, 2009

The Infamous 12th Game

Georgia Tech? NoArmy? NoTCU? NoIdaho? No

This is only a very small list of schools that have been thrown around for the 12th football game next year. Oh yeah that is correct Ole Miss does not have a full football schedule next year and the season is six months away. It is absolutely ridiculous and in my opinion someone should be fired. Yes I know it is extremely difficult to get a team to play a home game in Oxford next year for the amount we want to pay, but UMAA should make sacrifices. I can only imagine what our negotiations are like with this schools. How do TCU and Clemson work out a deal so fast? Now how does Idaho work out a deal with someone the way they did? Yet our people can't figure it out.

Now it looks like the Rebs are going to have to schedule a D II school next year because we have exhausted all options in scheduling.

If someone dropped the ball like this or couldn't negotiate in the business world they would be fired. Why does this not happen in intercollegiate athletics? Its inexcusable and I can imagine it is just another case of Ole Miss being cheap. What a joke UMAA is.

T White Continues to Dominate

Surely this guy is going to get Freshman Player of the Year in the SEC.

(SEC)BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – For the third time this season, Ole Miss point guard Terrico White has been named SEC Freshman of the Week, the league office announced Monday morning.White scored 25 of his career-high 29 points after halftime in leading the Rebels to a 98-91 overtime win at Arkansas. It was the most points by an Ole Miss freshman in a game since Keith Carter had 29 in the 1995-96 season. He also added seven rebounds, two blocks and two steals against the Razorbacks.The Memphis native notched his fourth straight 20-point performance with 21 against Mississippi State (on his birthday), giving him eight 20-point outings in SEC play.White’s three selections as SEC Freshman of the Week are the most for any league player this season.